Merry Gentry Series

New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton returns for the first in a two-book epic conclusion to her genre-defining Merry Gentry Series.

I am Meredith Gentry. Princess of the realm of faerie, private investigator in the mortal land of Los Angeles, mother of triplets, and lover to my men—the royal guards sworn to protect me. With a family and a court to support back home, I can’t say no to a job investigating a string of magical attacks against up-and-coming Hollywood actresses. Not when the case raises old nightmares from my own past. This time when I find out who is responsible for all this pain, I can make him pay.

But affairs in the land of faerie keep interrupting my hunt. Aisling is supposed to be the next king of the Seelie Court, but he is doubly cursed once by beauty and once by despair. If we cannot cure him my uncle Taranis, former King of Light and Illusion, may regain the throne. If he does he will destroy me and everyone I care about. Only true love will cure Aisling of his curse but is my love true enough? If not, I will share his fate and lose myself to the haunted magic that torments him.  

While we fight for one kingdom of faerie, my aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, claims my deceased best friend, Keelin, has turned up alive and well along with a child supposedly sired by her dead son. If this baby is the true child of my former rival to the Unseelie throne, my enemies might use it to take the throne from me. Mysterious fey babies, curses both ancient and new are shaking the delicate balance of the faerie courts, and I am still hunting a monster terrorizing the women of Los Angeles.

In this gripping novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry series, the first faerie princess born on American soil becomes a mother—and a target for turmoil and intrigue…

Merry Gentry, ex–private detective and full-time princess, is now the mother of triplets, a rarity in the high ranks of faerie. And not everyone is happy about it, including Taranis, King of Light and Illusion. He’s using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the babies is his.

To save herself and her children, Merry will use the most dangerous powers in all of faerie: a god of death, a warrior known as the Darkness, the Killing Frost, and a king of nightmares. They are her lovers, and her dearest loves, and they will face down the might of the high courts of faerie—while trying to keep the war from spreading to innocent humans in Los Angeles, who are in danger of becoming collateral damage.

You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. To protect my unborn children, I have turned my back on the crown, choosing exile in the human world with my beloved Frost and Darkness. Yet I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. But now I realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

I am Meredith, princess of faerie, and at long last, I am with child–twins, fathered by my royal guard. Now I must stay alive to see my children born, as conspirators from every court plot against me and mine. They seek to strip my guards, my lovers, from me by poisoned word or cold steel. But I still have supporters, and even friends, among the goblins and the sluagh who will stand by me. Those who would defy and destroy me are destined to pay a terrible price. To protect what is mine, I will sacrifice anything–even if it means waging a battle against my darkest enemies and making the most momentous decision ever made as princess of faerie.

Caught between rival faerie courts and deadly ambition, Meredith Gentry must navigate a web of seduction, danger, and ancient power to survive long enough to claim the throne—in this thrilling Merry Gentry novel.

Meredith Gentry, princess and heir apparent to the faerie throne and a former private investigator in the mortal world, must bear a child to secure her crown, or her ruthless aunt, Queen Andais, will place her sadistic son, Cel, on the throne—and have Meredith killed.

Surrounded by her devoted royal guards and lovers—her Darkness and her Killing Frost—Meredith is protected but not safe. Despite her efforts to conceive, she remains childless, while the queen’s deadly schemes intensify. Seeking refuge from court intrigue, Meredith and her guards retreat to Los Angeles, but distance offers little protection from enemies determined to destroy her.

A new threat arises when King Taranis, the delusional ruler of the Seelie Court, falsely accuses her guards of a heinous crime and pushes mortal authorities to prosecute them. If convicted, they face extradition to faerie and brutal punishment. Meredith knows the charges are a lie—and suspects that Taranis’s true target is her. Having tried to kill her once already, his ambitions now seem somehow even more dangerous.

“Hamilton’s books are must-reads.”—The Denver Post

Powerful new magic is awakened as faerie princess Merry Gentry tries to conceive an heir—and in doing so, save her own life—in this sexy and suspenseful novel.

The time has come for Meredith Gentry to put aside her Los Angeles detective work and fulfill her ultimate obligation to the world of Faerie—where her efforts to conceive an heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court are crucial to restoring magic, and life itself, to the fae kingdom. And though her quest may be rife with pleasures, the shadows of intrigue continue to suffuse the royal court . . . and sabotage may lurk at any turn.

While the Unseelie Mound reawakens in the dead gardens, powerful curses are at work. Merry’s uncle, the King of Light and Illusion, schemes to accuse her immortal guardsmen of heinous crimes. And Merry’s own command of magic has turned wildly and dangerously unpredictable. As plots and counterplots are hatched, and strategies and subterfuges are played out, the destiny of an entire world turns upon the fortunes of Merry Gentry; object of obsession, target of treachery, pawn of uncertain fate.

“Nonstop action . . . This book will leave you breathless.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Faced with a baffling double homicide, Merry Gentry must decide how much of the sinister side of faerie she’ll have to embrace in order to sit on a throne that has ruled through bloodshed for centuries—a thrilling installment in the New York Times bestselling Merry Gentry series.

In Los Angeles, she is Merry Gentry, private investigator. In the faraway world of the faerie she is Princess Meredith, heir to a dark throne. In this realm of peril and deception, adversaries watch her every move, while the enemies of her aunt, the queen, lay in wait to usurp power.

For the first time in history, human police will enter faerie—and Meredith will need all her allies when fate leads her into the arms of Mistral, Master of Storms, the queen’s new captain of the guard. Their passion will awaken powers long forgotten among the warriors of the court.

But as Meredith’s many enemies gather, both courts of faerie begin to unravel.

Full of sensuality and the consuming anticipation of latent powers unleashed, Laurell K. Hamilton’s world of gods, shapeshifters, and immortal souls is unveiled in all of its supreme magnificence and its treacherous deceits in Seduced by Moonlight.

Merry Gentry has heard the whispers from her guards. They fear her even as they protect her, and who can blame them? When a long missing chalice appears to her as if summoned directly from her dreams, she awakens the dazzling magic that has slumbered within her guards for thousands of years. What once stripped their powers is now restoring them.

At the same time, her aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, has shifted her focus from her usual sadistic hobbies to an unwavering obsession with Merry. Despite spending each night with the Queen’s Ravens, her immortal guards, no heir has come from their decadent pleasures. And yet, Merry’s power is surging like never before.

Even as the guards cherish her for this unexpected gift, there are those who loathe her for it. The Unseelie Court has suffered for so long, and some would not have it weakened further by a half-mortal queen. Her enemies grow in number every day. But they do not know what she is capable of. Nor, for that matter, does she. . . .

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Stroke of Midnight comes “[a] sexy, tension-charged dark fantasy mystery” (Locus).

“I’ve never read a writer with a more fertile imagination.”—Diana Gabaldon

“I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throne—if I can stay alive long enough to claim it.”

After eluding relentless assassination attempts by Prince Cel, her cousin and rival for the Faerie crown, Meredith Gentry, Los Angeles private eye, has a whole new set of problems. To become queen, she must bear a child before Cel can father one of his own. But havoc lies on the horizon: people are dying in mysterious, frightening ways, and suddenly the very existence of the place known as Faerie is at grave risk. So now, while she enjoys the greatest pleasures of her life attempting to conceive a baby with the warriors of her royal guard, she must fend off an ancient evil that could destroy the very fabric of reality. And that’s just her day job. . . .

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Meet Merry Gentry, paranormal P.I., and enter a thrilling, sensual world as dangerous as it is beautiful, full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, and ruled by the all-consuming passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods . . . or demons.

“I’ve never read a writer with a more fertile imagination.”—Diana Gabaldon

Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in Los Angeles, working as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now the queen’s assassin has been dispatched to fetch her—whether she likes it or not. Suddenly Merry finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt’s plans. The job that awaits her: enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful immortal men in the world. The reward: the crown—and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty for failure: death.